Pullups in detail – advanced 1

Are bodyweight pull-ups getting a little too easy for you now? Time to start increasing the stress on your arms by adding additional weight.

Using a weight belt and weight plates are going to be the go-to method for keeping those strength increases going.

What to use.

The prerequisite video covered some options for the weight-belt and any standard weight plate should be able to have the chain threaded through the middle.

Tri-grip plates are handy for multiple holes in the plates, but kettlebells also work just as well.

Scalability and type of training.

Since weight plates come in a very wide range of sizes and amounts, it allows you to have very fine control over how much weight you wish to add on.

Having control over this weight means that you can also change the type of training depending on the number of reps and sets that the weight allows you to do.

Weight Vests

The weight-vest is a good tool to use for certain types of training. Cardiovascular and endurance training benefit a lot from weight vests. Perhaps you also want to put pressure on the lungs a bit and make it harder to suck in oxygen. This makes the lungs work harder too.

However, using weight vests for the pull-up isn’t the best choice.

It’s hard to change the amount of weight precisely since the vests only come in one or two sizes, and the other problem is that it adds bulk to your chest, which makes it more difficult and unnatural to try to go past the bar to complete that full-range-of-motion.

They do look cool though…

For the Beginners too

The weight belt and weight plates are NOT just for people who want to add more weight on to their current bodyweight.

If you were using the assistance bands, let’s say you were using the blue band, and it was becoming too easy, but the thinner red band was too hard, you can use the weight belt to make a half-way step (or more) between the two.

For instance, you could use the blue band and then make it a little harder by going up in 1.5kg increments with the weight belt until you are doing roughly the same as if you had no weight and using the red band…